The present invention is in the technical field of robotic applications and in particular is useful in a-mobile platform suitable for various communication systems that include a robotic presence. In a preferred application a virtual presence robotic device is provided that advantageously uses a number of existing computer arrangements to reduce cost and extend the applications and customizations.
A robotic virtual presence provides telepresence functionality that includes enabling an experience of presence at a location which is remote from that of the physical being, and also provides those who are in the presence of the robot, the experience that someone is being projected through the robot.
Telepresence systems ideally require a communication access device through which bi-directional audio and video is carried between the user (or users) and the remote location of the robot along with motion instructions to enable the user to freely explore remote surroundings. The telephone could be considered the first generation of telepresence in that it bi-directionally carries only one of mans' senses, that of hearing, almost instantaneously across virtually any distance spanning two physical beings. This one-to-one form of communication, whereby each participant requires an access device conforming to a global connectivity standard known as the POTS system, remains ubiquitous today.
Telephones are available with a variety of customized features meeting wide ranging communications applications including business, hospital and personal needs. For example, conference calling capabilities were invented which enabled any number of communication access devices, in any number of locations, to tie together to enable multiple parties to concurrently converse. This many-to-many form of communication is commonly used throughout the world today as the cost per minute of communications, and the inclusion of standard telephones as compatible access devices, enables the service to be easily afforded and accessed by the population at large.
The next leap in telepresence occurred when real-time, bi-directional transmission of a second sense of man, that of sight, between two beings was commercially deployed by AT&T over 3 decades ago. Known as the PICTUREPHONE™, the one-to-one service was a commercial failure with low adoption due to high access device costs. Although backward compatible with any POTS access device, without a large number of persons equipped to communicate via PICTUREPHONES, and no method of identifying at the outset of a call who had PICTUREPHONE™ capabilities, and no options to enhance or specifically target the performance of the PICTUREPHONE™ for vertical markets, it was difficult to justify the $1000-plus cost per device.
Cellular and VOIP phones adding mobile telepresence access, when launched, also included features ensuring their compatibility with existing POTS infrastructure. Today, numerous videoconferencing systems employing common display monitors and projectors, speakers, microphones, and cameras spanning inexpensive laptop, game console, and television web-cam linkups through to dedicated multi-media conference rooms exist which primarily leverage now ubiquitous web connectivity channels, but still typically include support for standard POTS access to the voice channel by those without specialized access devices. Many proprietary video extensions also provide services which make it quick and easy to find which contacts have compatible video capabilities and most advanced systems support many-to-many communications via sight and sound.
Despite advancements in telepresence systems, each participant must still pro-actively engage in the establishment of the conference—and activate, typically via a key press or voice command, an access device at the outset of such communication. Even the latest videophone application, Apple's FACETIME™, requires that the launch of the communication channel be established by two people who must both be in physical connection with the access device—in this case, an Apple IPOD™ or IPHONE™.
The end objective of robotic telepresence systems is to create a true remote representation, or presence, of the individual being. But this has yet to be achieved at a cost acceptable to, or with any catalyst for, mass adoption. Each system proposed offers no global inter-connectivity with other systems, other than in some cases via basic POTS. Early robotic-assisted communications systems, dating back over a decade to at least the embodiments disclosed in Canadian Patent No. 2289697 issued to Treviramus et. al., teach of robotic mechanisms for moving both the monitor and camera to face sources of sound. Other systems, such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,171,286 issued to Wang, et. al., teach of more elaborate controls and motion mechanisms enabling the control of any linked robot from any other robot to facilitate both auditory and visual communications as well as a means to prioritize access requests. Another teaching, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,292,713 issued to Jouppi, et. al., provides a comprehensive framework for a telepresence device complete with an array of cameras and speakers, yet the application ignores any system enabling ubiquity, and related cost considerations.
As a distinct science from that of telepresence, early virtual presence concepts could be thought to have been first explored during the development of a program known as ELIZA™, written at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology between 1964 and 1966 by J. Weizenbaum which simulated the questions and responses of a hypothetical psychotherapist through a teletype interface. The author of the present invention also wrote a similar program with much larger vocabulary in 1974 at Upper Canada College which, also accessed via a teletype, consumed a very significant portion of a HEWLETT-PACKARD™ minicomputer's memory during operation. Observers in both cases found the illusion that a real person was responding to their comments and questions entered at the teletype very compelling despite the lack of auditory or visual clues. The algorithms developed at Upper Canada College were also able to use rudimentary rules to classify and store input, providing the additional illusion that the ‘person’ at the remote end of the teletype was learning from day to day as the vocabulary expanded.
There remains a need for a true telepresence robot which can project the individual into a remote location without the need for each end of a communication session to be activated by a participant. There further remains a need for a customizable telepresence platform supporting a wide breadth of usage scenarios while ensuring interoperability with low entry point access devices to succeed in the marketplace. Lastly, there remains the need for a true virtual presence robot which appears to be operated remotely by a human, yet is actually a simulation of such telepresence projected through visual, auditory, and autonomous motion clues.